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March 28, 2008

Va. lawmakers have valid point

State lawmakers hedged on a threat to withdraw from the No Child Left Behind program - and turn down $300 million in federal money, to boot - but their reasonable objections to the law have been heard nonetheless.

Farmers market shows example

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:



March 27, 2008

Obama, Hillary quite humorous

If the ability of presidential candidates to recover from roundhouse blows delivered with precision to their own chins from their own hands is an appropriate measure of their fitness for the job, Barack Obama might just as well move into the White House now.



March 25, 2008

Council should keep doors open
Right-to-work is helping Virginia

Concealed beneath the clamor over the state budget and bills covering such issues as gun rights, mental health and puppy farms were bids targeting the commonwealth’s right-to-work law.

Local GOP needs focus

Unrest continues to swirl in the Augusta County Republican Party after being stirred last year by Scott Sayre’s failed primary attempt to unseat state Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon.



March 23, 2008

City Council at the bat

On the front page of today’s newspaper, in this space and in a guest editorial by Waynesboro businessman and Wayne Theatre Alliance Chairman Bill Hausrath, baseball is again the topic of the day.

Time for city to step up to the plate

I have read with interest the articles about building a professional baseball stadium in Waynesboro.



March 21, 2008

Grisham should stick to novels

John Grisham, the trial lawyer turned best-selling novelist who lives near Charlottesville, has linked arms with billionaire George Soros in calling for an end to judicial elections, popular and politicized in almost two-thirds of the 50 states. Such is not the case here, where state lawmakers elect judges, a better but not ideal alternative in Grisham’s view.



March 20, 2008

Valley will stay that much safer

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:

Pay for efficiency: better for teachers

As local public school teachers await word on whether city officials will approve another round of seniority-based raises, here is an intriguing and growingly open secret about teachers unions: they increasingly are the object of disdain among some of their rank and file.



March 18, 2008

Justices expected to make right call
Lottery point stands

Miffed by our editorial last week backing state Del. Ben Cline’s push to halve what he described as a $26 million advertising budget, a Virginia Lottery official fired off a missive that we published Sunday disputing the figure. Lottery officials say the advertising budget is $20 million, not $26 million.

Ballpark needs council’s support

Since January 2007, Virginia has enticed large companies to expand or relocate here with more than $20 million in tax incentives, ranging from tax breaks to cash grants to job training, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. That has resulted in the creation of almost 3,000 jobs.



March 16, 2008

Shining a light on government

Today marks the start of an annual journalistic rite: newspapers’ championing open government under the banner of Sunshine Week, which starts today and runs through Saturday.



March 15, 2008

Spitzer not a tragic figure

Amid the rubble of another political career felled by scandal are lessons some people are loath to learn.



March 14, 2008

State budget worth the wait

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond.



March 13, 2008

Good luck to the Little Giants

They ran through the Southern Valley District, they pulled off the biggest upset of the year in the Region III tournament on a last-second shot. They’ve done everything they can to turn around a moribund girls basketball program. And, by golly, they sure did.

Chamber gets a bum rap in debate discussion

Letters to the editor



March 11, 2008

Blame game hard to win

In a Weyers Cave news conference replete with colorful charts and graphs, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, called for an end to runaway federal spending that has produced a $9 trillion deficit.

Political times getting strange

Times like these drove Rod Serling to a career of chain-smoking and penning screenplays about such things as mysterious furry monsters lurking on airplane wings.



March 10, 2008

Dollars better off left behind

Their feet firmly entrenched in a mire of red ink, Virginia lawmakers led by Del. Steven Landes, R-Augusta, stand ready to respond to the latest advances of their well-heeled bully suitor, the federal government, with a suitable cuff to the cheek.



March 08, 2008

Legacy is victim to circumstance

Forgive Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for stealing occasional glances at the exit signs inside the Executive Mansion in Richmond. Recent months have borne him all the kindness of a late-night mugging.



March 07, 2008

Taste of the town to be a sure thing

A Thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:



March 04, 2008

Sex-ed should be left up to parents

An air of sanctimony and hypocrisy as dense as the wee-hour fog on Afton Mountain hovered about Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s decision last fall to yank state money for abstinence education. Abortion peddlers such as Planned Parenthood hailed the move. Kaine championed it as an act of fiscal prudence, as if trimming $275,000 in state spending might somehow bridge a $641 million budget gap, the financial equivalent of dancing on water.



March 02, 2008

Consultants are waste of money

President Bush has his economic stimulus package and Augusta County supervisors have theirs. Bush sends checks to taxpayers. Supervisors ship money to consultants, some so far away they think Old Dominion is a mixed drink.



February 29, 2008

Republicans get back to the core

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:



February 27, 2008

The hidden cost of tax revenues

Like Valley foliage in the fall, the capacity of government to exacerbate predicaments of its own devising by exercising precisely the same malformed logic that produced the problem in the first place is always remarkable. Shaken down once more by frivolous feds, taxpayers are the ones who change colors, from healthy hues to a battered black and blue.



February 24, 2008

Obama still lacks substance

Bursting the expanding balloon of euphoria over the ascension of Barack Obama should not be so difficult as Hillary Clinton makes it appear. All that is required is the gentle, but decisive pinprick of reality.



February 22, 2008

Local soldiers deserve thanks

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:

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